Wood County Voter Turnout Higher Than States Average

A big election this past fall. West Virginia voter turnout numbers are in.

West Virginia's turnout for the 2012 general election was 55 percent.

The numbers break down further by county. Wood County was at 63 percent, and Pleasants County at 56 percent.

Wood County Clerk Jamie Six says these numbers are expected during a presidential election.

"The ballot was a lot larger in 2008 and 2012 because not only do you have the president, but you have the four year regular terms and auditor and magistrates and so forth. We always have a larger turnout during the presidential year election not just because the president, but because there are so many other races on the ballot. The more races, the more opportunity for people to come out and vote," Six says.

West Virginia also beat the statewide average.

"If you look statewide, we actually had a larger turnout in Wood County this year, but looking four years prior when the president was on the ballot it's actually down slightly. We went from about 68 percent to about 62/63 percent this year."

One reason for the big turnout was the success in community voting sites.

"With the community sites we did, it helped alleviate the lines on election day that would have been a real problem had we had so many people not take advantage of early voting."

More than 680 thousand ballots were cast, with over one million West Virginian's registered to vote in this election.

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